http://www.iht.com/articles/2007/11/15/europe/france.php
French council approves DNA testing for immigrants By Doreen Carvajal Thursday, November 15, 2007 PARIS: A special session of the Constitutional Council that included two former presidents approved immigration legislation Thursday that has provoked an angry debate about using DNA testing for some foreigners who hope to join relatives in France. The council accepted a law backed by the government of President Nicolas Sarkozy with some reservations, warning that the authorities should not resort to DNA testing for all immigrants. The council rejected another provision of the law that would have allowed statistics to be collected on the ethnic origins of citizens, ruling that it was unconstitutional. But it accepted DNA testing, the council said, because the legislation stipulates that it must be conducted on a voluntary basis. That decision was a widely awaited opinion that brought together two former presidents, Jacques Chirac and Valéry Giscard d'Estaing, within France's highest legal authority for the first time in almost 50 years. The ruling followed an appeal by the Socialist Party, which argued that the testing would be a dangerous precedent because it would base immigration on genetics and would violate privacy and family rights. Sarkozy's government was intensely criticized by the opposition and by some within his own party, with opponents comparing DNA testing to the anti-Jewish discrimination practiced by the Vichy government of World War II. Such testing is already used in at least 12 European countries, Australia, Canada, South Korea and the United States. "More and more countries are turning to DNA testing as a tool to establish biological links," said Jacqueline Weekers, a health-policy adviser at the International Organization for Migration in Geneva. "I wouldn't dare to say to establish family lines. That's the whole issue with DNA. What is a family? And what is not a family? A family can be several people connected because of social and other links." French legislators watered down the proposal, making the government pay for the procedure and restricting it to verify ties between mothers and children who agree to be tested. The law - which will be introduced for an 18-month trial period - is weaker than rules in countries that leave it to immigrants to pay for a test that can cost ?2,000. The International Organization for Migration advises governments about testing procedures, among other things. In the first half of 2006 it collected more than 1,600 samples of blood or inner-cheek cells from immigrants in more than a dozen countries who were seeking to live in Australia, Italy, the United Kingdom and the United States. The organization then sends the samples to accredited laboratories - which have developed into a growing industry around the world to serve immigrants. The organization says requests are increasing as various national authorities expand DNA testing to establish family relationships. Some immigrants request the testing themselves to speed up the application process. "Testing is one technical tool that can be abused and used properly," said Florian Forster, the head of the International Organization for Migration office in Paris. "The positive side of it is for people who can by no other means establish that they are related. If you're not genetically related to someone else, it doesn't mean that you're not part of the family. That is something that needs to be underlined." The Constitutional Council appeared to anticipate potential abuses by insisting that consular officials also use other proofs of identity, using testing as a last resort. The law also requires court approval for testing, which the migration group has urged in general to insure that the tests are used fairly. In Switzerland, where DNA tests have been used since 2004, the government uses genetic samples when it has doubts about the authenticity of identity documents. The foreigners who are tested tend to be from more than 30 countries - most of them African, most of them poor - where the Swiss have raised doubts about their documents. Immigrants from Iraq and Somalia are also more likely to be asked for testing.
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